Snow-covered stuffed animals with photos attached sit at a memorial...

A vehicle drives past the site where a makeshift memorial once stood near Sandy Hook Elementary School Saturday, Dec. 29, 2012, in Newtown. Two of the main memorials have been taken down, leaving just a few items left at the site. ( Brett Coomer / Hearst Newspapers )
Photo: Brett Coomer, Brett Coomer/Hearst Newspapers

A few items remain at the site where makeshift memorial once stood near Sandy Hook Elementary School Saturday, Dec. 29, 2012, in Newtown. Two of the main memorials have been taken down, leaving just a few items left at the site. ( Brett Coomer / Hearst Newspapers )
Photo: Brett Coomer, Brett Coomer/Hearst Newspapers

A group of people gather around at the site where a makeshift memorial once stood near Sandy Hook Elementary School Saturday, Dec. 29, 2012, in Newtown. Two of the main memorials have been taken down, leaving just a few items left at the site. ( Brett Coomer / Hearst Newspapers )
Photo: Brett Coomer, Brett Coomer/Hearst Newspapers

Carmen Faria, of Miami, kneels at the site where a makeshift memorial once stood near Sandy Hook Elementary School Saturday, Dec. 29, 2012, in Newtown. Two of the main memorials have been taken down, leaving just a few items left at the site. ( Brett Coomer / Hearst Newspapers )
Photo: Brett Coomer, Brett Coomer/Hearst Newspapers

A group of people gather around at the site where a makeshift memorial once stood near Sandy Hook Elementary School Saturday, Dec. 29, 2012, in Newtown. Two of the main memorials have been taken down, leaving just a few items left at the site. ( Brett Coomer / Hearst Newspapers )
Photo: Brett Coomer, Brett Coomer/Hearst Newspapers

Christmas stockings remain on the fence near Sandy Hook Cemetary near the site of a makeshift memorial for the victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting Saturday, Dec. 29, 2012, in Newtown. Two of the main memorials have been taken down, leaving just a few items left at the site. ( Brett Coomer / Hearst Newspapers )
Photo: Brett Coomer, Brett Coomer/Hearst Newspapers

A gathering of people surround the corner of Dickinson Drive and Riverside Road as they mourn the victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012, in Newtown, Conn. Even though the large memorial was removed from the site, people continue to stop and leave tributes.
Photo: Brett Coomer, Brett Coomer/Hearst Newspapers

Guy Veneruso, left, and Greg Gnandt shovel snow from the roof of the Sandy Hook fire station Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012, in Newtown, Conn. Gnadt said they are preparing the roof of the firehouse to install 26 copper stars in memory of the victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting. They plan to begin the installation on New Year's Day.
Photo: Brett Coomer, Brett Coomer/Hearst Newspapers

Guy Veneruso, left, and Greg Gnandt shovel snow from the roof of the Sandy Hook fire station Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012, in Newtown, Conn. Gnadt said they are preparing the roof of the firehouse to install 26 copper stars in memory of the victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting. They plan to begin the installation on New Year's Day.
Photo: Brett Coomer, Brett Coomer/Hearst Newspapers

Rosaries dangle from a cross as part of a memorial to the victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012, in Newtown. Handmade items made from a variety of mediums dot the landscape of the many makeshift memorials for the 26 victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting. ( Brett Coomer / )
Photo: Brett Coomer, Brett Coomer/Hearst Newspapers

NEWTOWN -- Under a blanket of snowfall, the once chaotic intersection of Church Hill and Glen roads is now quiet, the massive memorial to victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting gone without a trace Saturday.

The memorial, as well as another outside the main Sandy Hook volunteer fire station, was taken down ahead of a storm that was expected to drop as much as 4 inches of snow on the area Saturday afternoon and night.

A crew of 20 town employees began work late Friday and labored for hours into early Saturday to remove, by hand, the elaborate memorials that cropped up soon after the Dec. 14 shooting.

"The storm really created a problem for us," said Fred Hurley, Newtown's director of public works. "It forced our hand here."

Earlier in the week, he had said the memorials would remain through New Year's Day.

On Friday afternoon, families of the 26 children and educators killed in the shooting were invited to privately view the memorials and take whatever mementos they wanted. Newtown and state police kept the public away during the families' visit.

For two weeks, the streets in Sandy Hook have been packed with cars and pedestrians making pilgrimages to see the memorials and add to their mass. By Saturday afternoon, the center was quiet in the midst of the snowstorm, and businesses had closed early.

Vito Kala, owner of Villa Pizza & Restaurant on Riverside Drive in Sandy Hook, said he hoped the memorials' end would mark a return to normalcy. His restaurant, which had been blocked to traffic along with all of Riverside Drive, has suffered noticeably in the two weeks following the tragedy.

"Now, I just hope we can get back to normal," he said. "It's so quiet here now."

On Friday night, town workers shoveled teddy bears and ornaments, child-size cowboy boots, Christmas trees, posters and cards into large boxes. The boxes were then loaded onto shipping palates to be kept in the Public Works Department cold storage facility, preserved to later be composted and used as soil at a memorial site, or ground up and mixed with slurry to form concrete blocks for a permanent memorial.